My neighbor told me he's got a poplar tree he's going to cut down next weekend that I can have. I've never dealt with one before. Do you have to end seal the logs after they're cut? I'll be milling it for dimensional lumber.
I cut mostly poplar and while it is not as bad to end check as ash or cherry sealing the ends could not hurt and might help prevent or delay any checking. Don't be surprised if you get some purple tinting when you saw the boards.
Is it considered a soft or hardwood? Does it make good dimensional lumber?
Soft in my neck of the woods . and i think it makes great lumber.
This calc will give spans for joists and rafters, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the species list to "yellow poplar";
http://awc.org/codes-standards/calculators-software/spancalc
It can have a fair amount of growth stress, it'll usually split down the heart so for the 3 boards or so around the heart I'll go ahead and and saw them down that line. It doesn't hurt to saw/dry/rip poplar. Powderpost beetles love my poplar sapwood, I try to dip it all in borate. Most of the old clapboard siding around here is 5/8x6" poplar.
Poplar is classified as a hardwood, but it's softer than pine, if that makes any sense ::)
Does make a good framing lumber, I've used it on all my buildings and sheds
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33082/505.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1384661430)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33082/IMG_20161106_083603489.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1478440179)
"Poplar" encompasses a number of different species around here. It can mean yellow poplar, Cottonwood or Aspen. Cottonwood and Aspen can really twist and warp while drying while yellow poplar usually stays straight and stable. Dry Cottonwood seems to be very hard and can be difficult to drive a nail into.
For your future reference, unless I am mistaken, all trees that produce leaves are considered a hardwood and all evergreen and needle bearing trees are considered softwood. I save my poplar for 2xs and siding. if you let it dry, as construction material, before you build with it, my experience is my nail gun won't shoot through 2x material.
It is Georgia, so it is yellow poplar. Also called tulip poplar. It is in the Magnolia family. It is a diffuse porous soft hardwood.
Quote from: Waterford Woodworks on November 27, 2016, 06:36:09 AM
For your future reference, unless I am mistaken, all trees that produce leaves are considered a hardwood and all evergreen and needle bearing trees are considered softwood. I save my poplar for 2xs and siding. if you let it dry, as construction material, before you build with it, my experience is my nail gun won't shoot through 2x material.
This is the first time I heard this. I would like to here more on this,
Quote from: clintnelms on November 26, 2016, 07:14:01 PM
My neighbor told me he's got a poplar tree he's going to cut down next weekend that I can have. I've never dealt with one before. Do you have to end seal the logs after they're cut? I'll be milling it for dimensional lumber.
In general, poplar is an easy to handle species, pretty soft, but some logs have significant stress, so be prepared to rotate. If you have the end sealer, might as well glop it on. However, poplar is on of the few species I sometimes don't end seal in 4/4, as most end cracking is due to stress, and sealing wont help. The drying cracks are generally pretty short and will stop at the stickers, so I just buck the log long and trim any checks and stress cracks that may form after it has dried. Poplar sapwood is very prone to sticker stain, but that won't matter for dimensional lumber. If you try to get some appearance grade boards, take them from the heartwood, it's much more resistant to zebra striping.
Quote from: Kbeitz on November 27, 2016, 08:53:46 AM
Quote from: Waterford Woodworks on November 27, 2016, 06:36:09 AM
For your future reference, unless I am mistaken, all trees that produce leaves are considered a hardwood and all evergreen and needle bearing trees are considered softwood. I save my poplar for 2xs and siding. if you let it dry, as construction material, before you build with it, my experience is my nail gun won't shoot through 2x material.
This is the first time I heard this. I would like to here more on this,
The needles and leaves thing is another generalization. You will be right 99% of the time with it, because the most common softwoods, especially in Nth America, are the various Conifers (pine, fir, cedar etc) . But then something comes along to confuse you.
The real definition between the 2 groups is how their seeds are produced. Gymnosperm plants produce exposed seeds and are called the softwoods. Hardwoods or Angiosperms are plants that produce flowers and fruit, with the seeds enclosed in some sort of fruit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosperm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnosperm)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowering_plant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowering_plant)
If you look at some of the oddball trees you find things like Casuarina where the trees "leaves" have changed to look like pine needles and some of the local podocarp species have very enlarged "scale" type leaves, not that different to something on a normal hardwood.
And of course the actual hardness of the wood is not a good guide either. Yew is a "softwood", but harder than Oak. And Balsa is a "hardwood" ???
But the way the seeds are produced is the final test.
We have a tree up here in Pa that we call hard Maple and it is very hard.
But it also has what I would call exposed seeds or whirlybirds seeds .
When i google it I come up with this...
In general, hardwood comes from a deciduous tree
which loses its leaves annually and softwood comes from a conifer,
I cut down another tulip poplar off my place today and bucked it to length. Ended up with 46' of sawlogs from 8-12 feet long. Will saw if for a customer tomorrow who wants to build an outhouse for his client. Evidently his client has a camp and wants an old fashioned outhouse like he grew up with. My memories must be less fond than his but to each his own.
I have warned him about keeping it out of contact with the ground as poplar is not very resistant to rot when touching the ground.
Clint,
BTW, if you do cut this poplar watch your sawdust chute as I find poplar to be one of the worst woods about clogging up my mill. Evidently it is the bark that clots so bad as once I get a clean cant I don't seem to have the problem.
I cut three 8' and one 10' log off my outhouse tree yesterday for 375 bf. I still have one 12' log about 15" in diameter.